larrabee



c. E. LARRABEE. ELIMINATlON DEVICE FOR TIME RECORDERS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. I7, I919.

1,357, 16 1 Patented NOV. 2, 1920.

3 SHEETSSHEET lwvemto'c 8% Shown e 5 C. E. LARRABEE.

ELIMINATION DEVICE FOR TIME RECORDERS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. l7. I919.

1 357,46 1 Patented Nov. 2, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

ulrlllllllllllllilliv 4 TTORNE rs C. E. LARRABEE.

ELIMINATION DEVICE FOR TIME RECORDERS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. [7. I919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Patented Nov. 2, 1920.

OPERATION E m T N T w W 0 H A L A 1 0 r nw NTUR L 1417 RNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLINTON E. LABRABEE, OF BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE INTER- NATIONAL TIME RECORDING COMPANY OF NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

.ELIMINATION DEVICE FOR TIME-RECORDEBS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 2, 1920.

Application filed November 17, 1919. Serial No. 338,620.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLINTON E. LARRA- mm, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Binghamton, in the county of Broome and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elimination Devices for Time- Recorders, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Ina patent granted to my assignee on August 27, 1918, N 0. 1,277,086, I have shown an elimination device for time recorders, on which the subject of my present application for Letters Patent is an improvement.

In the said patent an apparatus is shown and described in which type wheels are set by a clock mechanism and record cards are printed therefrom to show the length of time that any given workman has been at work on a certain job. It will be understood that in cost keeping systems of this character it is desirable to divide the working hours of the day into a number of units, and to disregard the time when the shop is not working. This is for the purpose of simplifying the clerical work. Consider, for example, the case of a workman starting to work at eight oclock and working until noon, then having an hour off for his dinner, and beginning at one oclock and working one hour. The old forms of cost keepers or recorders would show on his card In 8:00 Out 12:00 In 1:00 Out 2:00, but with the improved machine the card would merely show 0.000.50, or a total of five hours work performed. The advantages of such an arrangement are obvious.

In order that the type wheels may print such a record, it is necessary to provide a means for disabling or disconnecting the type wheels from the card-driving mechanism during the non-working period. With a- 24-hour calendar day with four-non-working periods of one hour each, the hour wheel would have 20 characters thereon and would be disconnected from the driving clock mechanism four times a day for periods of one hour each.

It may however be desirable, in order to maintain a more even load on the clock train, or for other reasons, to throw out of operation the elimination devices for certain periods, as from midnight to six or seven a. m., or over Sundays or holidays, and the main purpose of my present improvement is to provide means for doing this.

The improvement which I have therefore made on these mechanisms resides in a more simple and effective mechanism for disconnecting the clock mechanism from the type wheels at predetermined periods during the day and for throwing out of operation the elimination mechanism, and consists in the form or construction of said means which will be herein described by reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a front view, in elevation, of a time recorder embodying my improvement, the outer casing of the instrument not being shown.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view of a portion of the elimination device shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a top detail view of the eliminatlon or cut out devices for the recorder wheels.

Fig. 4 is a side view of certain gearing used in the apparatus.

Fig. 5 is a detail View of the cam devices which operate the throw out mechanism shown in detail in Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a central sectional view of a clutch mechanism shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 7 is a central sectional view of the type wheels, showing the driving connection between the units wheel and the'drive shaft connecting with the throw out devices.

Fig. 8 is an illustration of a card with time impressions thereon, and showing the operation of the recorder.

The recording mechanism proper is of usual and well known character and calls for no extended explanation. The frame 1 carries the time recorder parts, including impression plates 2, an operating handle 3, and a carbon ribbon 4, fed forward, step by step, by the operation of the handle 3. To print upon a card, one like that shown in Fig. 8 is placed in the card chute under the type wheels and the handle 3 then pressed down. Impression plate 2 is first swung downward and then its operating spring swings it upwardly, causing it to strike the lower face of the card and thus take an impression of the positioned type wheels which are above the carbon ribbon l.

The type wheels are preferably three in number and are designated by the numerals 5, 6 and 7. The first named, or wheel 5, is the minutes or units wheel, and is driven by means of gears 8 and 9, the former on a drive shaft 10. The hour wheel 6, prefer ably having twenty characters thereon, is advanced once each revolution of the minutes wheel by suitable transfer devices 11. These devices, also, are adapted to advance the day wheel 7, once each revolution of the hour wheel. There are means for locking the units wheel just before an impression is taken, but these are of known character and are not included in the improvements upon which this application is based. The driving shaft 10 extends up to a clutch device which is adapted to clutch and release the said shaft from a clock driven shaft 12, as will now be described.

The clock driven shaft carries at its lower end a boss 13 which has secured to it a disk 14, having a plurality of spacedho-les 15 therein, as shown in Figs. 3 and 6. The type wheel driving shaft 10 is axially alined with shaft 12 and extends up through disk 14C and boss 13, and is freely rotatable with respect thereto. A clutch disk 16 is free slide vertically upon a sleeve 1'? which is pinned to shaft 10. This clutch disk carries two clutch pins 18, 19, the first of which passes through a hole in the bent plate 20 that is securely fastened to the upper end of the sleeve 17. The plate 20 causes a rot..- tion of the shaft 10 upon the rotation of the clutch disk 16, and permits a vertical move ment of the said disk. Below the clutch disk is a stationary plate 21 having a series of circumferentially spaced holes 22 therein.

In order to shift the clutch disk vertically, shifter arms 23 are provided which are secured to a rock shaft 24 and these arms have notches at their edges to receive the edge of the clutch disk. When the clutch disk is in raised position, as shown in Fig. 6, the clutch pins 1.8, 19 pass into the, holes in disk 1%, and with this position of parts the shaft 10 is driven in unison with the clock shaft 12. hen the clutch disk is in its lower position, the clock driven shaft 12 and the type wheel driving shaft 10 are disconnected from each other. The type wheel driving shaft is also locked against movement as the lower ends of the clutch pins have entered the holes 22 in the stationary plate.

Clock driven shaft 12 through gears 25 and 26 and suitable gearing drives an elimination wheel 27 at a rate which causes it to make one revolution each twenty-four hours. The elimination wheel has a circumferential T-slot in its face and in this slot are adjustably set tripping devices 28. In the drawings two of these tripping devices, for purposes of illustration, are at 5:30 and 6z3O p. m., and others may be placed wherever desired.

Pivoted adjacent the elimination wheel is a lever 29 having a cam point 30 normally lying in the path followed by the tripping devices 28, and adapted to be encountered to raise said lever 29 by the engagement therewith of a tripping device. Mounted on the same pivotal center 31 is a second lever 32 alongside that first named, and said lever 32 has a recess in its under edge. The lever 29 has an upwardly extending right angle arm'33 to which is pivoted an arm 3% with a turned over end which lies normally under the lever 32.

To the arm 3: is pivoted a link 35 the opposite end of whic-h'is pivotally connected with a spring actuated pivoted lever 36, the end of which normally rests either against the hub of a star wheel 37 mounted in the frame or upon pins setin the teeth of said star wheel. The elimination wheel 27 has on its opposite side to that shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a series of holes 38 into which pins 39 may be inserted when desired, and these pins are adapted to engage the teeth of the wheel 37 as the elimination wheel revolves and thereby operate to move said star wheel step by step.

Each tooth of the star wheel contains perforation 40, into any one or more of which a pin 41 may be inserted and as the star wheel revolves any such pin inserted in it encounters an inclined portion of the end of lever 86 and forces the same to the right, bringing its end onto the pin after the star wheel has come to rest. A spring 42 bears upon the periphery of the star wheel and retains it in any setposition by means of its end which engages the top of the teeth. The lever 32 is connected to the clutch operating devices and normally acts to connect or disconnect the clock driving and type wheel operating mechanisms through the instrumentality of stop devices 28 on the elimination wheel.

Normally, the lever 36 rests upon the top of a tooth on the star wheel 37, and in this position it draws the lever to the right and maintains the bent end of lever arm 341 under the edge of lever 32, so that whenever lever 29 is raised lever 32 is also operated. If, however, a pin 38 be set in the elimination wheel to move the star wheel one step in twenty-four hours, the lever 36 drops onto the hub of the star wheel and the arm 3% is shifted so as to lie in the notch of lever 32. Under these conditions the lever 29 be raised without engaging the lever 32, which remains down. In this way the elimination devices themselves may be thrown out of operatlon for any desired period and brought pivoted to it a spring actuated feed pawl 47 which engages the teeth of the ratchet wheel 45, as shown in Fig. 5. The ratchet wheel 45 is fed forward one step each time the elimination wheel permits the lever 32 to descend after being raised by a trip device on said wheel, a counterweighted retaining pawl 48 preventing a retrograde movement of the ratchet wheel. Rigidly secured to rock shaft 24, which carries the clutch shifting arms 23, is a follower pawl 49 which rests against the cam 46. The pawl follower is held against the cam by a counterweight 50, and the force exerted by this counterweight is sufiicient to elevate the shifter arms when the follower drops into the depressions in the cam.

The operation of the device will be readily understood. There are one-half as many depressions on the cam 46 as there are teeth on the ratchet 45, and consequently the follower will be held upon a high part of the cam during the entire period beginning with the elevation of the lever 32, by the raising of lever 29 under engagement of the first tripping device 28, say at 5:30 p. m., and ending after the said lever 32 has dropped after the second tripping device, say at 6 :30, has raised lever 29. During this period the cam disk will be held down in the position shown in Fig. 5, and since the clutch pins are out of the holes 15 in disk 14 the clock driven shaft 12 and type wheel driving shaft will be disconnected. During this period the type wheels will be locked in the manner previously explained.

At all other times the follower 49 will rest in the depressions in the cam 46 and the clutch disk will be elevated by the counterweight 50. With this condition of parts the clutch pins have passed into the holes in disk 14, thereby connecting the clock shaft and type wheel driving shaft.

\Vhat I claim as my invention is:

1. In a time recorder, the combination with type wheels and driving devices therefor, a clock train, means for connecting and disconnecting the clock train and driving devices for the type wheels, said means comprising a device operating at predetermined time periods for moving the aforesaid means, and an adjustable time controlled means for throwing out of operation the said connecting and disconnecting means for predetermined periods.

2. In a time recorder, the combination with type wheels and driving means therefor, a clock driven element, a clutch device adapted to connect and disconnect the clock driven element and the aforesaid driving means, means for operating the said clutch device to disconnect the clock driven element and the driving train at the beginning of non-working periods and to connect the same at the end of said nomworking periods, and an adjustable time controlled means for throwing out of operation the said connecting and disconnecting means for predetermined periods.

3. In a time recorder the combination in an elimination mechanism of the kind described, of a lever raised and lowered at predetermined intervals, a lever controlled thereby for connecting and disconnecting the clock driving and type wheel driving mechanisms, and time controlled adjustable means for throwing said levers out of operatii e engagement forpredetermined periods of time.

4. In a time recorder the combination in an elimination mechanism of the kind described of a lever raised and lowered at predetermined intervals, a clutch controlling elimination lever operated thereby, a connection between the two levers and an adjustable time controlled means for throwing said connection out of operation for predetermined periods.

5. In a time recorder the combination in an elimination mechanism comprising a time CLINTON E. LARRABEE. 

